


Dreams of Heartbeats in the Wilderness

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff and Angst, Homecoming, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 06:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10679271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Keith & Shiro's reunion after Shiro returns to Earth from his mysterious disappearance from Kerberos.





	Dreams of Heartbeats in the Wilderness

He’d had this dream before.

 _Shiro_.

Home.

Here in Keith’s own bedroom. Back from wherever he’d gone off to as if nothing had ever gone wrong. In some dreams, he’d returned from Kerberos right on schedule, and Keith had surprised him with this cabin for them. Shiro had never returned to the Galaxy Garrison. In other dreams, Shiro was just _there_ like he’d always been. But they’d all ended the same. Shiro asking why Keith hadn’t found him yet. Shiro asking Keith why he’d washed out when he’d need the garrison program to rescue him. Shiro telling him goodbye. Shiro walking away. Shiro disappearing into darkness.

And Keith waking up in a cold sweat to a cold, empty bed.

Which is why he fully expected to wake up from this dream any moment now. Every muscle in his body strung tight for inevitable sleep paralysis. For the terror. For the panic.

The knuckleheads in the main room were arguing over the best way to build Hunk’s energy detector device, and Keith was all too glad to shut the bedroom door on them. Ten minutes and they made him tired. The walls were thin but sound faded away as he swallowed, bracing for the moment he’d have to turn around and Shiro wouldn’t be there after all.

Blood whooshed in his ears. His fingertips tingled.

“Keith.”

Keith closed his eyes as Shiro’s voice washed over him, sending warmth down his spine and a clenching in his gut. He cleared his throat and turned around, bottling up every urge, every need to wrap himself around Shiro and burrow into him. “You left some of your things in my bunk.” He gestured uselessly to the dresser. “I kept them for when you came…home.”

Shiro didn’t move toward the dresser. He stared at Keith carefully like…well, Keith didn’t really know what, but he hoped it was something good. Something familiar. There’d been a moment, when he’d pulled Shiro off that gurney and into his arms that a flicker of confusion passed through Shiro’s eyes. Almost like he hadn’t recognized him.

Damn. He’d rather get punched in the face in a training exercise than see that ever again.

“I mean, I figured it’d be better to save them,” he continued awkwardly. “You’d never fit into my clothes. I think you got…bigger, actually.” He shifted his weight from side to side. He didn’t know what to do with his hands. He couldn’t keep gesturing to the dresser like a game show host.

_Where have you been? What happened to you? What happened to your arm? How did you get that scar? What happened to your hair? Do you remember me? Us?_

Instead of asking any of the questions splintering his brain and fracturing his heart, Keith moved toward the dresser. Digging out Shiro’s clothes would be good. Maybe get him some food? Shower. Shower would be good.

Shiro’s hand closed around Keith’s arm, and Keith’s heart crawled up his ribcage, fluttering like a trapped bird. “Keith.”

Keith looked at him, unsure. Which was a first. Even when they’d moved from friends to more, there’d never been hesitation or uncertainty. There’d been just them in every whisper, every promise, every moment, every dark corner, every shadow, every touch, every kiss they could steal. They’d fit naturally, snapped together like pieces of a puzzle.

But now, as Shiro’s gaze roved over Keith’s face, Keith battled between fear and anger. Fear at Shiro not remembering him. Anger at whoever took that away.

“How long have I been gone?” Shiro asked, lines between his brows deepening.

“A year,” Keith gasped out.

Shiro’s lips parted and his gaze slid away, but his hand didn’t leave Keith’s arm. “It was hard to keep track of time.” He stared at some middle distance between Keith and the floor, his silver eyes lost and hollow. Less metallic like Keith remembered and more gray like storm clouds on the horizon.

“Where were you?” Keith whispered.

Shiro shook his head. “I don’t…I don’t remember. Everything’s…” he squeezed his eyes shut. “It’s all scrambled.”

Keith wished the floorboards would part and swallow him up. So many nights he’d dreamed of being in Shiro’s arms again. Now, as he watched Shiro struggle to give a single answer, his heart plummeted to his toes, hollowing him out on the way down. Cold stole through his bones. “You don’t remember anything?”

Shiro shook his head. “It’s all jumbled images. Colors. Sounds. Nothing that makes any sense.”

Anger rose, hot and heavy. His eyes burned and the back of his throat ached. He pulled his arm out of Shiro’s grasp and headed to the dresser. “I’ll get you some clean clothes.”

Shiro grabbed Keith’s shoulder and spun him around. “What is it?”

“What?” Keith grabbed Shiro’s wrist but didn’t pull away.

Shiro’s eyes narrowed, and he pushed Keith against the wall by his shirt collar. “You’re hiding something. Tell me.”

 _You were supposed to come home to me. You were supposed to remember me. We promised each other everything._ “I’m not hiding anything, man. Calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” Shiro snapped, his eyes all fire.

Keith grabbed both of Shiro’s wrists and squeezed. In lieu of answering, he slid his hands up Shiro’s arms, forcing himself not to react to the alien metal of Shiro’s right arm. He inhaled a shaky breath and brought his hands under Shiro’s arms and, without breaking eye contact, he slid them behind Shiro’s neck. His fingers brushed Shiro’s hairline, and for the breadth of a moment, memories of Shiro pinning him against a wall to steal a quick kiss between classes clouded his vision. He exhaled slowly and forced his body to relax while he lightly dragged his blunt nails up Shiro’s shorn scalp. He tried to smile, but his lips trembled.

“Takashi,” was all Keith could say before his voice cracked.

Shiro softened as understanding cleared away the confusion. “You thought I’d forgotten you.”

Keith blinked, something so achingly close to hope rising in his chest, he couldn't risk reaching for it. “I didn’t… I mean.”

A muscle jumped on the side of Shiro’s jaw. “Dammit, Keith.”

“What?” Keith managed before Shiro kissed him, pressing him to the wall with his entire body. There was a split second between surprise and relief before Keith sagged against the wall and gave himself over to Shiro’s lips and hands. They clutched at each other, trying to pull the other impossibly closer. Keith wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck, pushing up his tiptoes to get closer. Shiro grabbed Keith’s hips, digging his fingers in before moving higher, and then his hands were on bare skin, warm fingers and alien metal curving around his ribs.

Keith wanted nothing more than to crawl into Shiro’s skin and make a home for himself under Shiro’s ribs so he could fall asleep to this boy's--this man's--heartbeat and remind himself this wasn’t a dream.

Shiro bit Keith’s lower lip. Hard. Keith pulled away with a yelp and thunked his head against the wall, eliciting another yelp. “What the hell was that for?”

“That you honestly think I’d forget about you.” Shiro’s nostrils flared as he took in ragged breaths. He pressed their foreheads together and squeezed his eyes shut. “Sometimes getting back to you was the only thing that kept me going. There were times where I swore you were there with me, telling me to just hang on, just fight a little longer.” He trembled under Keith’s hands. “I could _never_ forget you. And I'm so scared that I'm dreaming right now. That you're not really here.”

Keith closed his eyes against the burn of tears. Against the crashing realization that he hadn’t woken up yet. That Shiro was here. That he was home.

There were so many unanswered questions. So many things that caused terror and rage to spark deep in Keith’s soul.

But none of that mattered right now. All that mattered was here, now, this moment with these shared breaths and Shiro’s hands on his skin and Keith’s arms around his dream come true.

“Keith, can we just…can we lay down for a little bit, please?” Shiro whispered, his voice breaking. “No sex, nothing like that. I just need…” he trailed off. His fingers flexed around Keith’s ribs, dug into the skin as if he were afraid Keith would vanish at any moment.

Keith pressed his lips to Shiro’s jaw, tasting salt. He wiped the stray tear away with his thumb. “Yeah, I need it, too.”

 


End file.
